Question: When the mind is creating thoughts, I can see that it’s disturbed, it creates barriers, it seems to narrow consciousness. But how about feelings? So if we say ‘abiding in being’, is it in fact the same as abiding in feeling?

Answer: It depends on what the feeling is based on.

Question: Well, I seem to arrive at the conclusion that if there’s no thought, there’s still feeling.

Answer: Yes, but the feeling will be based on a thought. Abiding in being means abiding in presence. If a feeling arises within that, it is based on a thought. If the thought is not stretched in the duration of time, then the feeling stays as a feeling. That is why some people can operate from feeling, because their thinking mind does not get entangled in the feeling. You can say that feeling in that sense is purer because it does not get distorted by the movement of thought into thinking. Then, you can feel situations. Let’s say you are at a party meeting people, and you feel someone’s energy before talking to them, maybe you feel more comfortable with this person. In that case, you’re operating from pure feeling, which is a beautiful space to operate from in life. All of our emotions and feelings are in what is traditionally called the Manipura Chakra, which you could say is the Solar Plexus and below, which is the intuitive brain (the intestines are shaped like the brain). People who can sense their pure feelings, without those becoming muddled up with the thinking mind, become more intuitive. They feel their way through situations, they feel their way through decisions. To have that awareness of ‘what am I feeling now’ is a beautiful space to be, but it is not the same as abiding in being.

Question: So there should be distance from feeling as well.

Answer: Abiding in being is complete, it holds the space for everything. Even if the feeling is there, it is a movement that is witnessed. Abiding in one’s being is even prior to ‘ah, this feeling has arisen’. Awareness is abiding in being, and when no thought, no feeling, nothing arises to witness, one slips into non-witnessing. This non-witnessing is the start of what is referred to as Samadhi.